There will never be a “one-size-fits-all” model in Blended Learning at CBS. It all depends on your course subject, learning objectives, class size, and your own personal preference. However, there are research-based arguments for blended learning that apply across teaching and learning interactions and settings.
Here are some of the reasons and arguments for applying blended learning and implementing it into your own teaching practice:
Academic challenge
Not all students are academically challenged to their full extent. Blended learning is a way to offer students resources and activities specifically designed to organize and offer learning in addition to the time they spend on campus and thereby provide new opportunities for academic challenges.
Active learning
Students are often passive receivers rather than active participators in learning. Blended learning provides opportunities for the design and organization of activities that promote students to be actively involved. For example, students are able to do online tasks before or in between classes. Or they will show up for classes that require active participation since most lecturing is now replaced with video-based mini-lectures online as part of students’ preparation for class.
Digital competencies
Most of our students have grown up in the digital age and are used to dealing with technologies. By introducing learning technologies as part of a blended learning experience, we meet student preferences, Moreover, we help them develop digital competencies, that are required in their coming working life, e.g. participating in virtual teams and virtual workplaces.
Feedback
Students get limited feedback on their performance during the semester. Our LMS (Canvas) provides new opportunities for tracking our students’ performance and thereby giving them continuous feedback to enhance learning. The Peergrade tool also makes it possible to facilitate peer feedback sessions online.
Interaction
Students are often working alone. Online environments offer new opportunities for students to interact with both their peers and teachers – even when they are outside the classroom. For example, students can be asked to engage in an online discussion forum or do a collaborative writing exercise in a 365-document. Or they can be asked to solve a quiz while watching a mini video lecture in order to check their own progression.
International partners
Blended learning provides new opportunities to reach out and collaborate more closely with international partners through shared online project rooms, group work, and dialogue fora, which prepare students for an international work environment and support CBS’ aim of having a global mindset and a global engagement
Practice orientation
Students at CBS are eager to learn about real-life business. Blended learning offers more practice-oriented teaching, e.g. by online simulation games and video cases/interviews with practitioners. Practice orientation may also arise from a “flipped classroom”-concept, allowing lectures to take place online, while the on-site part offers students to do casework.
Self-directed learning
Students have a growing focus on customized learning experiences. Blended learning can support the creation of different learning experiences which aim to address different learning needs and interests in personalized journeys through the curriculum, e.g. by offering additional online tasks or resources in between classes.